Redana lets the red and the white fill her up. On one side of her lies a white-handled cane, repurposed from a damaged strut, and on the other lies an untouched bread bowl filled with a hot curry. The winds twist the dust together, and if she unfocuses and lets it all sink in she can almost see two dragons with writhing tails biting at each other, breaking apart where they strike, wild and lawless, creatures of the storm and the far beyond.

Wait. The Hermetican is still talking. What was he saying?

“Okay,” she says, as the Auspex displays the key points of what had just been said. “I hear you. So you need me to go fight the crabs in a harness while you vent the lower decks, right?”

Just like Atlantica! She can see herself now, weightless, tethered, only needing three limbs as she vanquishes a monstrous horde! Behind her, the sky glitters with eight million ice crystals and angry crabs as the [i]Plousios[/i] adds to the beauty of the heavens. Her mighty sword flashes and Bella clings to her—

“What are we waiting for?” Redana picks up her bread bowl and starts shoveling it into her mouth at a decidedly unwise speed.